The US has Al Gore. UK has James Lovelock. And Australia has Tim Flannery, the author of “The Weather Makers”. Tim Flannery, an expert on global warming, has now revised updated his climate forecast for the world, and it’s much worse than he thought just three years ago.

According to Professor Flannery, climate change is happening so quickly that mankind might need to pump sulphur into the atmosphere to survive. The gas sulphur could be inserted into the earth’s stratosphere to keep out the sun’s rays and slow global warming, a process called global dimming.

“It would change the colour of the sky,” Professor Flannery says in Melbourne’s The Age. “It’s the last resort that we have, it’s the last barrier to a climate collapse.”

Regardless of what happens to future emissions, there is already far too much greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Simply cutting emissions is not enough. Mankind now had to take greenhouse gases out of the air. “The current burden of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is in fact more than sufficient to cause catastrophic climate change,” Professor Flannery says.

Appropriately enough, next to the article in The Age is a Google ad linking to a free book on prophecy from www.the-end.com. The title is “2008 - God’s Final Witness”. I couldn’t possibly imagine a better product placement.

Our self-declared savior and climate oracle, Albert Gore, continues his quest for planetary salvation at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

On Sunday, he told graduates of Carnegie Mellon University they could become part of the next “hero generation” in American history by solving environmental problems. There had already been two “special generations” of Americans, he said, the one that founded the country and the one that defeated fascism during World War II.

“You, I hope and expect, will be called upon to be part of the third hero generation in American history, by countering the threat of global warming.”

Americans have always loved their heroes, so I guess many attention seeking adolescents will buy into Gore’s arguments. But the truth is - there is no planetary emergency. We don’t need more heroes. At least not in the sense of self-sacrificing environmental defenders.

Yep, that’s right. First polar bears, now kidney stones.

According to a new study (read The Times of India), global warming may lead to an increase in kidney stones disease. Dehydration has been linked to stone disease, mainly in warmer climates, and global warming will worsen this effect, according to the researchers. As a result, the prevalence of stone disease may increase, along with the costs on treating the condition.

The study is being presented at the 103rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Americal Urological Association in Orlando, Florida.

No comments.

They are big, they are white, they are endangered. The US Government affirms that climate change is putting polar bears in peril. Yesterday, it listed the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), wildly applauded by WWF.

“A tremendous victory for one of the world’s most iconic and charismatic species”, says Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF-US. “The other big winner today is sound science, which has clearly trumped politics, providing polar bears a new lease on life.”

“Based on the best available science, if current sea ice trends continue, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will be lost by 2050,” said Geoffrey York, coordinator of WWF’s Polar Bear Conservation Program. “The threatened species designation will now provide additional legal protections for the bears, including the conservation of critical habitat and the development of a government-supported recovery plan.”

At the same time, the US Fish & Wildlife Service estimates that the polar bear population is currently at 20,000 to 25,000 bears, up from as low as 5,000 to 10,000 bears in the 1950s and 1960s. The Inuit people themselves are telling us that the bear population has increased. Of course they are immediately accused of pursuing their own interest - hunting.

But the entire alarm about polar bears disappearing is based on speculative computer model predictions. The polar bears are thus being put on the list NOT because they are in decline but because the ice is melting. In the Medieval Warm Period, when temperatures were warmer than they currently are now, the polar bears managed to survive. Why shouldn’t they now?

Besides, the Earth’s climate is expected to cool for the next decade, not warm.

A great little woman has passed away. A true hero. Irena Sendler, who smuggled about 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto in World War II, died on Monday in Warsaw. She was 98.

Sendler was a 29-year-old social worker with the city’s welfare department when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and all the Jews in Warsaw were forced into a walled-off ghetto. Seeking to save the children, Sendler masterminded risky rescue operations. She and her assistants smuggled out babies and small children in ambulances and trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages.

“Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory,” Sendler said in 2007 in a letter to the Polish Senate after lawmakers honored her efforts in 2007.

For her efforts, Irena Sendler was nominated to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Her nomination was supported by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. It might have been the first time a Nobel Prize would be awarded in connection to the Holocaust. However, that didn’t happen.

Instead, the Peace Prize for 2007 went to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“For their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

The following is a statement by IFSW.

“IFSW sends congratulations to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2007. The issue of climate change is affecting all individuals and societies and it is a more than worthy cause to help begin the change in our lifestyle to prevent destruction of our planet. Social workers know from daily experience that this is an immediate and pressing social and personal issue.

‘However IFSW is deeply saddened that the life work of Nobel nominee Irena Sendler, social worker, did not receive formal recognition’, said David N Jones, IFSW President. ‘Irena Sendler and her helpers took personal risks day after day to prevent the destruction of individual lives — the lives of the children of the Warsaw ghetto. This work was done very quietly, without many words and at the risk of their lives. This is so typical of social work, an activity which changes and saves lives but is done out of the glare of publicity and often at personal risk. IFSW recognizes her again and at the same time celebrates the commitment and dedication of thousands of social workers around the world who also bring hope and care to people often living on the edge of despair,’ David N Jones concluded.”

According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the Peace Prize should be awarded “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

So, here we have a woman who put her life on the line every day to save people with whom some might say she had only a country and a God in common, and she was passed over for a prestigious award in favor of a man who invented the Internet and whose goal will make billions miserable for the sake of bad science.

“A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference,” said Boerge Brende, former Norwegian Minister of Trade, when congratulating Al Gore on winning the Peace Prize.

Irena Sendler insisted she did nothing special. In an interview she said: “I was brought up to believe that a person must be rescued when drowning, regardless of religion and nationality. The term ‘hero’ irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little.”

Here’s to you, Irena. I hope you will be remembered by many.

A month has passed since the “Gang of Four” sent their letter to the IPCC demanding they reverse their view on global warming. Piers Corbyn, one of the four, said on May 11th: “We have as yet received no response from the IPCC which is astounding since the matter is of such great importance. I do not believe they can give an adequate response.”

Why am I not suprised?

The Guardian tells us today that world CO2 levels have reached a record high. Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 ppm, the highest for at least the last 650,000 years.

CO2 is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than expected. The annual mean growth rate for 2007 was 2.14 ppm – the fourth year in the past six to see an annual rise greater than 2ppm. From 1970 to 2000, the concentration rose by about 1.5 ppm each year, but since 2000 the annual rise has leapt to an average 2.1ppm.

But now comes the big question. With the CO2 levels soaring, why won’t the temperatures rise? There is something rotten with this global warming…

CNN reports that The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is installing a new IBM supercomputer in order to accelerate research into climate change. The supercomputer, known as a Power 575 Hydro-Cluster, is the first in a highly energy-efficient class of machines to be shipped anywhere in the world, with a peak speed of more than 76 teraflops. Does that mean you can call it a “huge flop”?

While the death count in Myanmar is still rising, Al Gore takes the opportunity to score.

“We’re seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming.”

It was just a matter of time before someone tied the Myanmar tragedy to global warming. And who else could be more appropriate for the job than the Goracle?

Gore claims global warming is forcing ocean temperatures to rise, which is causing storms, including cyclones and hurricanes, to intensify. Disastrous cyclones have of course been around long before global warming. If Gore bothered to open a history book before his mouth he might have found this list:

Deadliest tropical cyclones in history

Rank. Name / Areas of Largest Loss, Year, Ocean Area, Deaths:
1. Great Bhola Cyclone, Bangladesh 1970 Bay of Bengal 550,000
2. Hooghly River Cyclone, India and Bangladesh 1737 Bay of Bengal 350,000
3. Haiphong Typhoon, Vietnam 1881 West Pacific 300,000
3. Coringa, India 1839 Bay of Bengal 300,000
5. Backerganj Cyclone, Bangladesh 1584 Bay of Bengal 200,000
6. Great Backerganj Cyclone, Bangladesh 1876 Bay of Bengal 200,000
7. Chittagong, Bangladesh 1897 Bay of Bengal 175,000
8. Super Typhoon Nina, China 1975 West Pacific 171,000
9. Cyclone 02B, Bangladesh 1991 Bay of Bengal 140,000
10. Great Bombay Cyclone, India 1882 Arabian Sea 100,000
11. Hakata Bay Typhoon, Japan 1281 West Pacific 65,000
12. Calcutta, India 1864 Bay of Bengal 60,000
13. Swatlow, China 1922 West Pacific 60,000
14. Barisal, Bangladesh 1822 Bay of Bengal 50,000
15. Sunderbans coast, Bangladesh 1699 Bay of Bengal 50,000
16. Bengal Cyclone, Calcutta, India 1942 Bay of Bengal 40,000
17. Canton, China 1862 West Pacific 37,000
18. Backerganj (Barisal), Bangladesh 1767 Bay of Bengal 30,000
19. Barisal, Bangladesh 1831 Bay of Bengal 22,000
20. Great Hurricane, Lesser Antilles Islands 1780 Atlantic 22,000

Nota bene: Almost all of these happened before our CO2-emissions skyrocketed.

Moreover, less than a month ago, the hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology unveiled that hurricane frequency and intensity may not substantially rise during the next two centuries. His novel technique for predicting future hurricane activity suggests that, even in a dramatically warming world, hurricane frequency and intensity may not substantially rise during the next two centuries.

Monsieur Gore should freshen up his knowledge. And if he really cares about the Burmese people, he could go there to help instead of exploiting their tragedy to sell more copies of his new book.